#OI2Dublin – Intel’s Martin Curley: we will need two Earths to support human life (video)

Intel vice-president and director of Intel Labs Europe Martin Curley warned that at the present rate of consumption we will soon need two Earths to sustain human life. For this reason, he said the pace of innovation to reduce energy consumption and create a smarter, more sustainable planet is critical.

Curley, who was speaking at the Open Innovation 2.0 conference at Dublin Castle today, said that at the current pace the Earth is consuming 1.3 times its current resources.

He said this presents a massive challenge in terms of creating better models of energy consumption, for example.

“We need to enter an era of mass collaboration,” he said.

“If you look at innovation – 20 or 30 years ago most innovation came from brilliant scientists.

“But not all the smart people in the world work in universities or corporations.”

A new era where the pace of innovation is a matter of survival

Much of the sentiment at the Open Innovation 2.0 conference centred around the idea of a quadruple helix ecosystem – combining research from universities, businesses, governments and citizens.

Curley said that technology is transforming traditional industries and cited the book publishing industry, the music industry and retail as industries that have been transformed irrevocably.

“We are in a new era,” he said, citing the drift of change that transformed the smartphone industry with Nokia now competing with Android and Apple.

“Intel is working hard to create a fourth competing ecosystem.”

Curley also outlined the swift growth of Intel Labs, which has grown to 40 labs worldwide and 4,500 professionals in just under four years.

To give a sense of the speed of change, Curley said the role of universities is changing.

“The role of the university is changing, where once it was about students and research but now it is about entrepreneurial value creation.

“Open innovation will be critical because when we all work together we can drive spectacular results.”